The Great Escape
by AnnHoj
Summary: After a loud argument, Ron is forced to choose between Lavender and Hermione...and is ready and waiting with an answer that a certain loathsome blonde girl doesn't want to hear...or see.


So this is set during the sixth book with the whole Lavender fiasco. I haven't read it insanely recently, so if it doesn't match up perfectly with the course of the story, I'm sorry. If it is off, I don't think it's by much and it's called poetic license anyway. So, I think Lavender is really annoying and this is a little illustration of how Ron could have dropped her for Hermione.

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His eyes couldn't help but follow her as she departed from his side, stealing away her warmth as she drifted off in the same direction Harry had just vanished. As the very familiar brunette had barely scurried off to the library, Lavender approached him in a fury. He silently cursed Hermione for leaving him to fend for himself. Ron cared less about the girl's apparent anger than the fact that she was in his presence at all. He didn't wish to see her, speak to her, or smell the cloud of sickeningly sweet perfume that seemed to follow her everywhere she went. Actually he would have been quite content if she was to suddenly fall off the face of the earth and drift off into oblivion for all he cared. He was angry too, not because she was, but that his plans to avoid her for all of eternity had failed so miserably.

She moved quickly closer to him, quick enough that he knew, even if he tried, there was no way to run away from her. The fiery words from her red lipsticked mouth spouted at a tempo quicker than that of her steps, none of which Ron could comprehend. When she finished her rant in a high pitched whine, she came to a stop in front of him her arms crossed, her hip popped and all of her weight resting on her right leg. She looked at him perturbed and waited for his response impatiently.

He, however, couldn't help but find it comical. "I'm sorry… I didn't get any of that." He chuckled in honesty, but also with the hopes that he had annoyed her so far and that she'd hopefully give up and just disapparate, though of course he knew, regardless of her mood, that was indeed impossible at Hogwarts. Had it been possible, he would have done so himself a while ago. By now, he should have learned that Lavender was not the type to just go away when she wasn't wanted. She was the chewing gum permanently stuck to the bottom of his trainers. She was impossible to make disappear.

Lavender found it far less hilarious than Ron had apparently found his own comment. She looked as though she might spontaneously combust or something, yet she started talking all over again, elevated a few decibels this time. "What were you doing up there with her!"

She hadn't realized until then how it would have appeared to her little mind. Harry had been undercover of his cloak, leaving Ron and Hermione exposed descending the staircase that led to the boy's dormitories alone. He couldn't tell her everything. He couldn't tell her that the two of them, on the contrary, had not been alone and that Harry was sneaking off to Hadrid's under cloak cover which is why she couldn't see the third party involved. So he decided to only tell her a small portion of the truth. He knew that no matter what words he allowed out of his mouth, she was going to find fault in them all. "Well, we were just upstairs with Harry, but we had to leave to research unforgivable curses for Snape's class and…." He knew that a girl like Hermione would never have bought it, but he would have been the first to admit that Lavender was not in the least bit a bright girl. Something told him that even with her great lack of intelligence she'd still call it into question.

Her impatience cut him off short. "You're lying!" The blonde headed girl spat in anger, her already irritating voice rising in pitch. "Every time I see you, she is always there…always!" Her arms were flailing wildly in out in front of her as she spoke. "You know, you two alone all the time…I hate it." She said bluntly, finally crossing her arms in wait of a response.

He couldn't help but stand in front of her silent with his mouth left agape. He wanted to laugh at how ridiculous the girl had to have been to demand such a thing, but he knew that if he did there was a good chance that it would be returned by a strong slap in the face. He wanted to speak, but he didn't know where to start. He feared that if he was to open his mouth all his words would leap out in a screaming volume, ridiculous as she was in his opinion.

"She's my best friend!" He yelled loud enough to send his voice ringing throughout the whole Gryffindor tower. "What is so wrong with that?" He asked, anger displayed like fire upon his face.

"Friend?" She scoffed. "That's was she is, is she? Don't you realize she's in love with you?" She noticed a change in his expression, a sign, as she took it, that she had hit a nerve with him, that something she was doing had been effective and just what she had wanted. "Didn't you know that? Well, I heard it through the grapevine that she's pretty much crazy about you..." She finished her statement with a smile of mischief upon her lacquered lips.

"I am her friend, she is mine…it's that simple. Nothing more." He tried his best to get across to Lavender's feeble mind. "But how is it for you to say who I can spend my time with?" He could feel himself getting worked up again as she seemed to have him backed into a corner, both in her nonsensical conversation and in the physical sense as he found himself trapped between the wall and an angry irksome girlfriend.

"Because…how can I know that I can trust you?" She tried to persuade him that she was right, speaking in a low teasing tone, but it fell flat. "How can I be at ease when you are running around with _her_ hanging all over you—"

He had to interrupt. "She does not hang all over me!" His desperate tone hindered his battling point slightly. "And isn't it rather hypocritical of you…gallivanting around with Dean and Seamus…isn't that worse?" He didn't allow her to speak, not wanting anymore nonsense spilled in his presence. "What have I ever done to make you doubt that you can trust me...Anything?" She still didn't reply, backing away from him instead. "That's what I thought. You are just an insecure whiny...little girl...and you just need to grow up little..." Hermione had been right the whole time, but he had been too stubborn to take note. He wanted so badly to just shake, slap her, or just hit her he was so infuriated; it was only that fact that she was a girl and that he, being Ron, simply could not do it out of principle that kept him from having it his way.

She had regained her power following the short silence; her posture growing more confident in her enhanced height and her face now more smug than it had been previously. "If you want to still be with me, you can't be around her anymore." She presented the ultimatum that he had been expecting from her. He knew it was only a matter of time before she dipped that low and he was ready with an answer.

"No." He stated flatly without a second thought.

"No?" The look on her face was utter shock, as was her voice. It was as if she was so sure that she was a strong enough bargaining chip for him to give up his best friend just to make her happy, delusional just as the poor girl had become.

"That's it. We're done…through, over…completely..." His eyes burned in to her hers, but not at all in the way she would have liked.

"You're not serious." She laughed nervously, running her hand down his arm in a flirty manner, which failed terribly as he shook off in disgust. He could hardly stand to look at her. "So you're breaking up with me?" She asked so pathetically.

He could care less if she slapped him, he roared in laughter anyway. It wasn't like him, but he didn't care if she had tears in her eyes, or if she let them cascade in hysterics down her cheeks, he didn't care one way or another. He had finally begun to see Lavender as some kind of monster; a manipulative, jealous, power hungry monster of a woman. She was suffocating and he hated that it had taken until now to come to fruition, to completely crack, to do the healthy thing and sever all ties she had tethered tightly to every aspect of his life.

"Yes." He didn't wait for a response, but instead abandoned her at the foot of the staircase. He was angry first off by all that she had dared command of him, how completely petty and self centered she was, but more so by the fact that he had remained in denial of all of it for so long.

At the same time he felt like skipping, jumping for joy, for the fact he was finally free of his fetters. A heavy weight had been lifted from him. He felt as if it commanded some kind of celebration, but instead he found his feet taking him in the direction of the library, in the direction of Hermione, as if she was his magnetic north; the thing he turned toward when completely lost.

She was right where he knew he'd find her. As he wandered into the library and passed the front desk, he spotted her sitting alone at her usual table, the one closest to the aisle which contained all of the defense against the dark arts books, those which she found herself using more often than anything else. Her head was down; her eyes focused on a page full of words rather than where he stood. Her nose was buried in a large potions book, so far that all he could see were her wild curls protruding from behind the old worn cover. He had to laugh at how angry she had become over the fact Slughorn had begun to throw all of his praises on Harry and his unknown study buddy formerly known as Prince. He knew that she wasn't yet used to having her intellect over looked. He knew that she was determined to beat Harry on her own merit, but he didn't expect her to be so fanatical about it that she'd spend a whole free night reading up on the subject just to prepare for his next lesson.

He watched her warily as he proceeded towards her, careful to keep himself out of her view as he crept up behind her. He didn't see it as that much of a challenge as when she read her mind was fully invested in the material she was absorbing and thusly, had no time to wonder what exactly was going on around her. He quieted his steps as he approached her closely, but as soon as he found him standing directly behind her, he placed his hands on either her shoulders, sending her jumping out of her chair a few inches and, despite being in the library, allowing a yelp to escape from her throat.

She spun around in her chair upon landing to see who had caused the madness to erupt. "Ron…what the—" She spoke rather loudly.

"Shh…you're in the library." Ron retorted smartly in response. "Sorry…" He finally apologized pulling up a chair next to her, turning one across from him into a suitable foot rest for his trainers.

She set her book down upon the table, its weight and amount of pages kept her page marked for her as she abandoned her reading for a moment. "So…I see you escaped in one piece…good for you!" She exclaimed with a smile on her face, taking only a little pleasure in his misery. She knew he wasn't happy, but she couldn't help but find a little humor in it all. She had, after all, warned him many times of into what he was getting himself with that girl. She could have told him that she would have turned possessive and psychotic, but she knew, when it all first began, that he wouldn't have listened to a word she had to say.

"Very funny…how nice of you to just abandon me." He spat in a fake scornful tone. He tried to hold an angered face, but it soon cracked in laughter. "Do you know she pretty much hates you?"

"No way!" She responded in sarcasm. "I thought we were best friends…sisters even!" She closed her book and promptly got up to return it to its rightful home on a shelf. Ron got up from his chair to follow her at her heels down the row of books.

He leaned against the shelf opposite of that over which she searched for the exact location for the textbook, watching over her every move carefully. "You know, I ended things…with her." As Hermione caught his words she quickly put her book back in a place she thought to be correct, though she didn't care so much all of a sudden. She slowly turned around to face him and settled her back against the book she had just returned, curious to see what he would have to say next. "She didn't want me to be around you anymore."

"She wants to change your friends too." She spoke, her arms folded across her chest and listening carefully. "I didn't think she had a problem with Harry, or she seemed to like him at least." She was spewing words nervously, but she didn't know why exactly. "Well, actually I think that she's pretty okay with any socially acceptable guy who looks her way…" No matter how hard she tried to keep her mouth shut, it just kept opening involuntarily and broadcasting drivel to his ears. "Actually, I think, more accurately, she's more than okay with anyone who is male and breathing…no offense to you of course—" Ron thankfully cut her off.

"Can you believe that she _'didn't trust me spending so much time'_ with you? How ridiculous is that?" He asked, throwing his head back in fits of laughter.

She did as well, though out of the tension she could feel in the air around them. She hoped it was something of which only she had taken notice. Her hilarity died down as soon as his did. She felt slightly guilty. He had broken things off with Lavender because of her and she was surprised by his sudden change of heart. Before he had seemed too invested in Lavender and himself eating each others faces for him to actually stick up for her the very moment Lavender over stepped her bounds. It wasn't what she had expected and it left her a little confused about what she was supposed to do now knowing that.

"Why wouldn't she be able to trust me? I'm a trustable guy, _aren't I_?" He asked hoping for a yes, following which he received in an eager nod from Hermione. "I mean, give me one reason why she shouldn't allow me to be around you…what that would ever become an _issue of trustability_?" He just couldn't believe how off her rocker Lavender had to be to ever suggest such a thing of him.

"Really?" She asked rather unexpectedly.

He looked up at her at the sound of her voice, shaking him from his own thoughts. He watched as she took two steps closer to him. He moved nearer to her confused, but she raised both palms to his shoulders and pushed him flush against the bookshelf. There was fire burning in her eyes as he searched them looking for any hint of what she would do next. She took a step closer to him, the points where her toes came to halt on the carpet falling in a straight line with his facing in the opposite direction she was pressed so closely to his form. Her right hand grasped his loosely knotted tie within its fingers and he caught a mischievous grin dancing upon her lips before she went in for the kill and kissed him hard full on the mouth.

She had gone out on a limb in doing so. She had been wary of what his response to such a forward action would be, but when she felt his arms wrap strongly around her waist and sensed how he had allowed his lips to teach hers a thing or two, she realized it wasn't in a least bit a mistake on her part. In no time she had found herself with her back against the bookshelf opposite of where she had just stood as Ron had embraced the idea she had merely suggested. His fingers were entangled in her curls and his lips were enjoying a tour of her jawline, pondering whether to take a side trip to the fair skin at her neck near her ear. He was just about to go there when the thought registered in his mind that they were still in the middle of the library, public domain. Though the rows of books that ran for what seemed like miles on either side of them shrouded others eyes slightly from the snogging that was occurring just on the other side, it would have been just his luck that he'd be caught and it would mean another handful of hours with Snape on Saturday, not to mention a larger amount of unwanted attention than he could imagine.

He savored one last taste of her lips before he took a step back from her. He didn't know what made him do it, but upon opening his eyes he let his gaze drift upward, through the space above the books that opened to the row next to them. When he did so, he was welcomed with blonde hair and a pair of blue eyes that had just turned around to met with his. "Ron!" The shrill voice spoke, causing him to jump out of his skin and crush his hopes that it had been simply a figment of his imagination. She was like a bad horror film.

He hoped to God that she had just in that moment turned around and not done so earlier and caught everything that had happened previously. "Hello Lavender." He spoke louder and as calmly as possible, forming a clue to Hermione to make herself hidden. Lavender and Ron were both taller than Hermione and therefore could see each other from about the nose up over the level of books between them. Hermione was just short enough to remain hidden from the girl on the other side.

Hermione, just for safety's sake, crouched down by his feet until she knew it was safe to stand once again. She noticed while she was down there that there was a rather large section missing on her side of the second level of this particular bookshelf she was using as her bunker. Apparently the library staff had been slacking lately and they were still laying in a pile somewhere waiting. She tried so hard not to laugh as Ron continued his most uncomfortable conversation with the blonde, but she had no other choice but to stifle them all.

"Um…just getting that book I needed." He was a terrible actor as he threw his diction all over the place in nervousness. If she hadn't been such a bubblehead she would have known the difference. "Look…unforgivable curses." He lifted the book into her sight after he luckily found one that was applicable, hoping it would make his story more plausible. "What are you doing here?" He asked her, his voice sickeningly nice.

"A book…herbology essay." She quickly bent down out of his sight, but he could still hear her voice as she spoke. "Oh look…" She pulled out a rather thick book from the second shelf from the bottom and her voice became even more audible though she projected no louder. "I found what I was looking for." She spoke in double meaning while waving a manicured hand at Hermione from where she could now see her from her respective side of the divider, her bunker now discovered by the enemy. Lavender stood up straight again to speak to Ron at eye level, and the evil self-righteousness plastered on her face, so much that it made him cringe to just look at her. "I knew it!" She spat in fury before she disappeared to a section that contained pages with more pictures and perhaps more up to her speed.

Laughing, he retreated into hiding as well. He slid down to sit next to her, shaking uncontrollably as he continued to laugh harder by the second. It was just his luck that it would have played out just as it had. "Do you think she actually saw us or was she just being…Lavender?"

She rested her head upon his shoulder comfortably as she thought about it for a split second. "I don't really care. What can she really do about it?" She brought up a relevant point as he lifted his arm to allow her to settle in to his side. But a furious Lavender could not in anyway be a good thing for anyone.

"Well, she has a wand and she knows how to use it." He said, sounding slightly scared of the girl. He didn't really feel like having a swarm of birds attack him anytime soon. "But after seeing how you handle Malfoy, I know for a fact you don't even need a wand to put someone in their place." He chuckled slightly to himself thinking back upon the day when he finally witnessed the arrogant little prat sprint away from her in fear. He couldn't have been more impressed with Hermione than in situations such as those. "I'm actually a little afraid of you because of that."

"So you are supporting the use of violence if it presents itself? Because I just might." She could feel the grin grow upon her face as she let her mind imagine hitting the prissy girl square in the nose and hearing her scream in terror when she broke a nail attempting to retaliate. "Do you really want the responsibility of being the one who said I could do it?

"What…you mean you really would?" It surprised him slightly. Hermione had always been the one to keep his own level head. She was the rational one, the one who always tried her darnest to keep him from doing the idiotic stupid things the moment they popped into his head.

"No…I only actually fight back with guys like Malfoy. Ones that are too proud of themselves to tell anyone I ever did it. If I…say…beaned Lav-Lav in the nose, she wouldn't feel that it would hurt her character to say that she got punched by a girl. She'd take it as yet another way to get attention. Malfoy, although he likes attention…"

"He would rather go unnoticed than be known as the guy who got punched in the nose by Hermione Granger?" It gave him a headache just thinking about Lavender whining his ear off once again, but Hermione was making a lot of sense. It was a nice change of conversation from what he had grown used to blocking from his ears. Something seemed so right about it, about her, about being with her, his best friend, rather than the random girl he had chose to make him forget about the one he assumed he could never have.

"Exactly." She answered, her voice reverberating against his lips.

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So I'm not sure if I want to add a second chapter to this or not. What do you think? I apologize deeply for typos...but I'm really tired.


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